James Corden's so wrong he's right

NOW HERE'S a rare thing. It's what's used to be known as a "funny comedy".

Corden's new comedy The Wrong Mans is a classic tale of mistaken identity [BBC]

This one, The Wrong Mans, starring James Corden and Mathew Baynton (Horrible Histories) is actually amusing. There are also laugh-out loud moments but, as we know, comedy is completely subjective, and you may walk away from your TV set, muttering "modern rubbish!" It's certainly worth watching one episode though.

The basic story is thus. Sam Pinkett (Baynton) and Phil Bourne (Corden), are office workers for Berkshire County Council. And yes, there are some moments reminiscent of The Office here. Both have their menial existence turned upside-down by a chance phone call and a case of mistaken identity. This then evolves into a kidnap plot, being tied up and threats of violence.

The two actors met on the film set of Telstar: The Joe Meek Story, but it wasn't until they worked on the hit show Gavin And Stacey that they came up with the idea for The Wrong Mans.

Corden, who is best known for Gavin And Stacey and his Comic Relief turn, says "we wanted to write on as big a canvas as possible", adding: "All actors really want are moments where you get a chance to shine." Just as long as it's funny of course.

Corden expands on the influence of the DVD "box sets".

"We started talking about our love of these American shows, and that feeling of having to watch the next week, and the production values that are in those shows. We wondered whether it would be possible to do something where the stakes were that high, and the polish is that 'filmic'."

He adds: "We set out to write one script, one episode, and just see what the response would be to it. We'd been to see Burn After Reading, the Coen Brothers film, and we both loved it. As in all their films, there are real moments of humour, and yet the stakes are really, really high in that.

James Corden has received mixed reviews for his various projects with Matthew Horne [GETTY]

"We would often talk about the scene where Brad Pitt's character and Frances McDormand's character are calling John Malkovich's fired CIA analyst and they just keep saying his name, 'Osborne Cox', because they think they're involved in something. We would just talk about these things..."

There are indeed some very funny moments. Many of these emerge when Corden's character Phil tips into his Smithy-style speeches. As he says at one point, "This is our moment." He really does believe it, too. After all, he is a post boy looking for fame. Bayton's character works in marketing and comes up with slogans, such as "If you like James Cracknell, you will love Bracknell." I'm sure that will be immediately adopted by the Berkshire town.

But putting a film-inspired idea into a comedy format on television is not easy.

Says Corden: "We thought, 'What if we could do that within the constraints of a half-hour BBC comedy?' What would happen if something of that magnitude would happen, and it happened to just two ordinary guys? There would be real moments in that which would be very funny. There would be moments where you would go, 'I don't know...', 'Well, I don't know either, what are we going to do?' and we'd talk about things like in 24 or the Bourne films where there would be a moment where they might go, "We have to go to Paris" and it would just cut to two shots of Paris and Jason Bourne would be coming out of a subway. If that was our show, we would try to have the same sort of intensity, the exact same reason and meaning, and go, 'We have to go to Paris', but it would cut and they would be online trying to book Eurostar tickets and talking about why it's more expensive off-peak or on-peak, whether they want a vegetarian meal.

We deconstructed all of those things because people travel great distances in film and TV and yet you never really see it

James Corden

"We deconstructed all of those things because people travel great distances in film and TV and yet you never really see it. They just end up somewhere and you go, 'Well they must've stopped to get something to eat. Or had a nap'."

But Corden is a realist when it comes to comedy. He was one half of the team that brought us a sketch show with Mathew Horne (Horne & Corden) that was widely slated.

He concludes: "Whether we've pulled it off is another thing really, but at least you know where it started."

And the title? "Our reason for calling it The Wrong Mans is to let you know it's a comedy show. If it was a drama, it'd be called The Wrong Man."